Authors

Discussion

British refugee policy is notoriously hostile. In comparison, the Ukraine Visa Schemes are uncharacteristically benevolent. These visa schemes show that there is scope for inventiveness and a partial overhaul of the current refugee settlement system. Critics of the Ukraine Visa Schemes argue that the preferential treatment of Ukrainians is racist and exclusionary (Mickelsson, 2024). Ukrainians receive more support on arrival than other groups of refugees, and the intersection of their gender and ethnicity plays a role in who is deemed as deserving and why. Yet Ukrainians do not have refugee status, and have no pathway to Settled status or Indefinite Leave to Remain. The gendered and racialised positionality that affords Ukrainians more protection upfront simultaneously positions them as lacking the vulnerability to receive long-term support.

The Ukraine Visa Schemes are defined by an in-built precarity, where Ukrainians are given all the tools that they need for integration, without any access to long-term settlement. Previous research has explored how this precarity impacts the relationships between Ukrainian refugees and their hosts (Burrell, 2024). Yet research on Ukrainian refugees continues to emphasise their demographic homogeneity, emphasising that the majority of Ukrainian refugees are women and their dependent children (Dück et al, 2024). Previous scholarship has drawn comparisons between Ukrainian, Syrian and Afghan refugees, and suggested that the Ukraine Visa Schemes only exist in their current form because Ukrainian refugees are primarily white, European women (Daoust and Dyvik, 2023). Yet there has been little research on the intersectionality of Ukrainian refugees themselves.

The home- and family-centric nature of the Ukraine Visa Schemes means that both routes for Ukrainian refugees to enter the UK are contingent on assumptions about their vulnerability, and—by extension—their identities. The reception of Ukrainian refugees has been shaped by expectations of whiteness, Europeanness, femininity, heterosexuality, and perceived cultural proximity. When support for Ukrainians in the UK is built on such assumptions, what do these intersecting identities mean for the reception, integration and precarity of Ukrainian refugees?

This balance between perceived vulnerability, personal agency, and temporal uncertainty defines the positionality of Ukrainian refugees. Yet these characteristics are not static. As the war continues, and conditions in both Britain and Ukraine shift, the choices available to Ukrainian refugees are influenced and limited by their individual identities. The options available to a middle-aged mother are different than those of a 30-something childless LGBTQ+ woman, or a disabled man. Using a feminist epistemological approach, this paper examines how the intersections of such identities impact the options available to Ukrainian refugees and shape the